Saturday, June 8, 2013

Excerpt to Blackbird

Adahya stopped walking.He turned, shook his
head in disgust.Knox’s woman was not to
be found.He could hear her, though.There was no doubt about that.She had not shut her mouth since leaving the
Oneida mission.

This was a mistake.He should not have agreed to take her to Fort
Ontario.He wanted Knox, and Colonel
Butler wanted Knox.This woman was not
Knox.He should have tomahawked her back
at the mission.

Her hair was dark like a raven’s
wing.He could not guess its length due
to the hideously tight bun she wore it in, but it appeared to be handsome like
a Hodenosaunee woman’s hair.It would
bring a steep price at the fort.But not
as steep a price as Knox would bring alive and unharmed.Knox would bring great rewards: tomahawks,
trade goods, guns perhaps.Colonel
Butler knew the trouble the reverend was stirring by bribing the Oneidas, and
Butler was willing to pay highly for him.Knox’s evil works were destroying the dreams of the Great King across
the Sea and the peace the Hodenosaunee had sewn into the hearts and minds
of the Iroquois brothers.Colonel Butler
and the soldiers of the Great King across the Sea would kill Knox on the
grounds of treason.

They would do the same to Knox’s woman, of
course.

Adahya wondered how much reward she would
bring to him and to his people.She
seemed to know a great deal about the war and about the Oneidas.She had even known that Ganeagaono meant the People
of the Flint, or Mohawk, as the white eyes called them.It had not taken him long to realize that she
knew little of the Hodenosaunee language, as she had not responded to any of
the insults he had heaped on her, but Knox had assisted her in his twisted
ways--that was certain.And she had
shown him documents that she said proved Knox’s treason.Adahya could not read them.He had never been taught to decipher their
paper language, but he believed she was ignorant enough to disclose what they
recorded.

Adahya smiled.Perhaps with her ignorance and her never
ceasing mouth, she would bring as much reward to his people as Knox would
have.He could then go back for Knox and
double his profit.Regardless, it would
be good to have the white woman’s mouth quieted forever.